Sludge Watch ==> Virginia sludge - "Rural America just a giant landfill"

[Maureen Reilly]

   Sludgewatch Admin:

Increasingly we see cities and urban industries like papermills sending 
their wastes as phoney 'products' into the countryside.  Look at the 
decomposing
paper sludge 'berms' in Ontario...and give away sewage sludge pellets that 
self ignite. The cities congratulate themselves on being 'green' and 
'diverting waste'
while the rural community is beset with water quality problems, odors, and 
the early morning spectre of hundreds of tractor trailors of foul 
contaminated residuals
dropped into their community with little oversite or regulatory control.

Farmland  - the new landfill.
...............................................

http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=LNA/MGArticle/LNA_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149191907591&path=


Biosolids spark concerns
with Campbell County residents
By Blair Goldstein
bgoldstein at newsadvance.com
Tuesday, November 28, 2006


>From her bedroom window, Jennifer England can see her neighbor's pasture.
The rural view drew England and her five children from their New Jersey home 
to Campbell County about three years ago.
But for the past week, the scenic view has kept England awake at night, 
afraid.
The pasture in Gladys is part of more than 3,100 acres of Campbell County 
land targeted by a biosolids company to receive the treated sewage sludge.
Campbell County officials announced Nutri-Blend Inc.'s request to spread 
biosolids on 36 tracts of land - mostly in the southern and eastern portions 
of the county - last week.
Since then, mothers, caretakers, neighbors and biosolids activists have been 
expressing concerns and speaking out.
"I feel like we left New Jersey to protect our children and to give them a 
better area to live, a cleaner fresher place to live in the country and that 
the crap from New Jersey is literally following us here," said England.
"I am horrified. I lose sleep over it. I look at that field and I just want 
to scream. I would have never moved here if I had known."
County residents have until Dec. 15 to share their comments with the 
Virginia Department of Health.
Eddie Gunter Jr., chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said county leaders 
learned late that the state's 30-day public comment period opened Nov. 15. 
He said the county will likely request an extension when the board meets 
Monday as well as ask the state to host a public information meeting.
County Administrator R. David Laurell said the county also will release its 
review of the targeted tracts at Monday's meeting and then formulate an 
official response to the proposal.
Across the county, residents are working to mobilize their neighbors to 
submit statements of concern as well.
Judy Elliott, a biosolids activist in Campbell County, said she went 
door-to-door Saturday and Sunday talking to neighbors. She also is compiling 
a list of sick neighbors to send to the state's health department.
In May, Nutri-Blend halted a shipment of biosolids to a pasture near Naruna 
in response to a sick neighbor's plea.
"What we've been trying to do is just get out in the community, basically 
just knocking on doors," said Elliott. "But having been given such short 
notice to do this in, it's impossible."
Elliott said she will continue working during the next two weekends before 
the public comment period closes.
Nelson Harvey also plans to knock on his neighbors' doors in coming days.
Harvey lives off Virginia 615 and is completely surrounded by tracts 
requesting biosolids. He said he is concerned about his father-in-law, who 
lives on the same land and is a cancer survivor currently suffering from 
emphysema.
Harvey said the smell of biosolids could become a problem in the short run. 
A bigger problem, he said, could be the impact biosolids could have on the 
value of his land.
"I don't have the funds to fight people like this," said Harvey. "If they 
(landowners) have the money to buy these big farms they ought to be able to 
put the lime and the normal stuff on it to fertilize the land."
Biosolids are given to farmers as free fertilizer. The process saves cities 
from the cost of storing sludge in landfills and saves landowners from the 
cost of traditional fertilizers.
Other county residents say they are reaching out in a less organized 
fashion, talking to neighbors at gas stations and grocery stores.
"People are feeling like they are just getting walked all over," said Chris 
Snyder, who lives north of Gladys. "It's getting worse and it's coming and 
it's coming fast. If folks don't speak up loudly and strongly enough nobody 
in authority's going to hear it."
Snyder lives downstream from a cluster of three tracts near Rustburg 
totaling about 817 acres that are a part of Nutri-Blend's biosolids request.
He said he is concerned that treated sewage sludge is not safe. He said he 
is frustrated that county leaders cannot keep biosolids out of the 
community.
While Campbell County leaders have requested legislative changes to give 
localities final site approval, the state health department continues to 
have sole authority over biosolids' permitting decisions.
"Hopefully the residents in the county know that we support them and that we're 
as concerned about this as they are," said Laurrell. "Unfortunately the 
state has the regulatory oversight over this and there is only so much the 
county can do."
Currently only one 130-acre pasture is approved to receive biosolids in 
Campbell County.
No matter what the outcome of the current biosolids request is, the struggle 
between some farmers and some community members is likely to continue.
Mary Powell, a spokeswoman for Nutri-Blend, said more Campbell County 
landowners have contacted the company to sign up to receive biosolids.
It's a reality that keeps England awake at night.
"We have become the dumping ground for the cities and large metropolitan 
areas," she said.
"I just don't think that rural America is safe anymore because we're just a 
giant landfill."